Your Customers are Searching on Instagram and TikTok – Can They Find You?

There’s a shift happening in marketing that most small business owners haven’t noticed.

For years, “being found online” meant Google. You wrote blogs, optimised for keywords, and hoped someone would discover you.

But things have changed.

Today, 24% of people search directly on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube instead of Google. That’s nearly a quarter of potential customers skipping Google entirely. If your posts aren’t optimised for social search, they’re invisible, no matter how good they look.

Social media isn’t just for likes anymore. It’s a search engine, and your content needs to be found, not just seen.

Your Content Might be Good… But it isn’t Findable

A lot of businesses think social media is purely about reach and engagement. But the algorithm’s job isn’t just to show posts to followers. It’s to index content and deliver it to people searching for something specific. Which means your content has to be structured in a way platforms can understand.

Right now, most small businesses are making the same three mistakes.

1. Your Captions Don’t Contain Searchable Keywords

Most captions fall into one of two categories:

• A few emojis and hashtags

• Something vague like “new post is live!”

Neither tells the platform what your post is actually about. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube now read captions to understand your content and match it to what people are searching for.

Think about what your ideal customers type into search bars. For example, small business owners might look for:

“Social media tips for small businesses”

“How to grow on Instagram in 2026”

“Content ideas for local shops”

If your captions don’t include phrases like these, your posts won’t show up in search results, and your customers won’t see them.

Quick fix: Include a clear, one-sentence summary of what your post is about in your caption. No keyword stuffing, just clarity.

2. Your Audio, On-Screen Text and Alt Text are Empty

Most small businesses focus on visuals, but forget the words in their content.

Platforms now analyse:

• Spoken words in video

• Text overlays on screen

• Alt text on images

That means if your video talks about “marketing tips for local cafes,” the platform can show it to people searching for that exact phrase.

If your videos are silent, textless, or have empty alt text, the algorithm has no clue what your content is about and won’t recommend it.

Quick fix: Add short text overlays describing the topic, speak clearly about your subject, and fill in alt text for every image.

3. Your Account has No Content Theme

This is the most common issue. And it’s the hardest one to notice.

If your account posts about:

• Marketing tips

• Personal life

• Random trends

• Industry news

…the algorithm struggles to categorise your account.

Think of it like Netflix. If a show doesn’t clearly fit a genre, the recommendation system doesn’t know who to show it to.

Social platforms work the same way. When your content has a clear theme, the algorithm understands what your account is about, for example, “marketing and growth tips for small business owners.”

Once it understands that, it can confidently recommend your posts to the right audience — the people actively searching for what you offer.

Quick fix: Pick 2–3 topics your audience cares about, stick to them consistently, and make sure each post clearly fits that theme.

Your Content Needs to be Findable

Here’s the good news: you probably don’t need better content. You need discoverability.

Social SEO, optimising your content so it can actually be found, is the fastest way to get your posts in front of potential customers who are actively searching.

The brands that win are not the loudest. They’re the easiest to find.

Your content is good. It just needs to be searchable.